


A Tree Starts With a Seed

by sargent



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Art, Draco is a little shit, Forced Bonding, H/D Erised 2020, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pining Harry Potter, Post-Hogwarts, Slice of Life, but he has a good heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sargent/pseuds/sargent
Summary: "Who's cute?" Draco asked.Harry looked up so fast his neck cracked loudly. He could feel the impulse to say "you're cute" stuck in his throat.Ah. That. Harry didn't have time for that.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 7
Kudos: 239





	A Tree Starts With a Seed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tedah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tedah/gifts).



> Did I really write something with more than 1k??? Sounds fake, but okay.  
> Thank you, [Tedah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tedah) for inspiring this work, tried to give you all the domestic, cozy, slice of life bliss you deserve, but with a little twist. Hope this warms your heart ♡  
> And thank you, [ronan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronan), for saving my ass last minute, you're the fucking best, love you to pieces!!

“Does expecting the unexpected make the unexpecting expected?”

Harry blinked slowly at the arrangement of dahlias he was working on, then blinked again and raised his eyes to look at his coworker. He only managed to see the top of her head, since Laura was sitting on the floor behind a row of turquoise orchids, eating a tuna sandwich.

“What?”

She turned, and now he could see a part of her face between two flower pots.

“Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud?”

Harry snorted, eyes back to the dahlias.

“Did you just ask a random existential question out loud? Yes, you did. Is everything alright?”

She got up, still chewing the last piece of her lunch. They didn’t usually eat at the front, but it was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays were always a bit slow. On top of that, they had two big orders to finish until Friday, which meant sacrificing time from lunch, or staying after hours.

“Yeah,” She came to the counter, leaning over it to throw the empty packaging in the bin. Harry smiled when her feet left the ground, but was less amused when he remembered that he wasn’t much taller than her, and that in that position his feet would probably be hovering too. “I read this list with stupid enquirements this morning, and this one is bugging me.”

“What’s the problem with it?”

“The unexpected,” she replied, like it was obvious, drawing some dahlias and a ribbon to herself. “I mean, how can you even expect the unexpecting? The unexpected is just, you know, _unexpected_.”

“You’ve been talking for five seconds and I’m already doubting this is even a word.”

Laura laughed.

“Try thinking about it for five hours. But you got what I’m saying, right?”

“But isn’t it exactly the point of the question?”

“Well, yeah, but who expects the unexpected? It’s not a thing. You can’t actively expect the unexpected. I mean, I know what to expect, like, today’s a Wednesday, we’ll have fewer customers, but there’s always the regular ones. Mrs. Belvedere will be looking for a new flower for her living room, Mr. Ayriss will come for more fertilizing potions, Mr. Malfoy will bring his week’s orders. This is how it works.” She extended her hand in Harry’s direction, motioning for the shears. “I don’t go around my day thinking ‘well, today Draco Malfoy will come into the shop wearing a polkadot pink dress and ask my hand in marriage because that’s _unexpected_.”

Harry choked on his spit. Laura couldn’t tap him on the back from the other side of the balcony, so she slammed her freshly finished bouquet into his chest a few times. Harry pushed her hand away, his “stop it” broken between a cough and a laugh.

“What a specific thought,” he said after a few moments, when he could actually breathe. His brain was still focused on that mental image, though, and his snort triggered a few more coughs. “Have you been thinking about it a lot?”

“No,” Laura said with a maniac smile, staring at him with big eyes and both eyebrows raised. “Because I don't expect the unexpected. Don’t be slow, Harry.”

“Jesus.” Harry said, rolling his eyes, but there was a smile on his face. “Let’s try doing it today, then.”

Harry loved this place every day, but Wednesdays were his favourite, when they could just chill and have this kind of conversation, talk about whatever, work in a lazy mood, actually appreciate the ongoing day without juggling customers.

He never intended to like the shop this much. It just… happened.

He still remembers when it wasn't a shop yet, just a big greenhouse in the middle of the city where Neville grew every kind of plant he could put his hands on. It was not far from the Ministry, so Harry would stop by when he had a break from training and have lunch with his friend. 

When he managed to become an Auror, instead of being too busy with work, he saw himself spending more and more time in the greenhouse. Every single moment he wasn’t in the office he was here, even when Neville wasn’t around.

It was just so quiet. So, _so_ quiet. He didn’t have that in his life anymore. Everything was a snowball of yelling orders, spells missing his ear by an inch, older people thinking they knew better, paperwork you had to finish with someone breathing down your neck, fake smiles, office gossip - gods, did he hate office gossip -, and dealing with people that, to be quite sure, he couldn’t care less about.

Even his family. He loved them. He loved them with all his being. But not one person who met the Weasleys could say they weren’t loud.

So the greenhouse it was.

Sometimes he would bring Teddy over, teach him the name of the plants - with Neville corrections here and there, because Harry knew shit about Herbology - play with ground and seeds, plant something at random and make bets about what would grow from it.

Sometimes his whole family would be there. They would be loud and Harry wouldn’t mind. He would laugh with them, and forget his problems, and bicker about Quidditch, and choose flowers for the next Sunday lunch.

Sometimes he wouldn’t say a word. He would come in during the night, keep the lights off and make lists in his head, trying to remember the name of every single plant, trying not to think of anything else. Neville would find him the next morning, sleeping on the small, uncomfortable two seater sofa they had in the back. He would offer him a cup of coffee without saying anything.

Slowly, he watched the place become even greener, and then even more colourful, with flowers popping up from all around the world. He was there when Neville opened for sales, and was there when he decided he needed a second shop because his clientele for exoctic plants was way different from the ones who would come in just for some flowers.

He was there when Neville voiced his fears about not being able to care for two shops. Augusta had answered him with “give this useless boy a goddamn job”, always a no bullshit kind of woman.

She had been talking about Harry. Of course she had been talking about Harry. And Harry had laughed, and when he told his friends that, he laughed a little more. But Ron was silent, and Hermione wasn’t looking at him. She was drinking a cup of tea and Harry could hear the clicking of porcelain, because her hands were shaking.

“We’re afraid you’re going to explode.” she said with a small voice.

Harry hated seeing her like that, but he also hated knowing she wasn’t talking about the greenhouse at all. He hated the feeling of being patronized, the presumption that he didn’t know what was best for his own life. Hermione and Ron exchanged a look, and that was all it took for Harry to fight back with all his fire.

He didn’t sleep that night, replaying the fight again and again in his mind. He gave up around five, deciding to wait in the shop until it was time to go to the Ministry. Neville was opening the doors when he got there, a sleepy smile on his lips.

“You know it’s yours, right?” He asked nervously, his hands still on the doorknob. “The job, I mean. If you want it.”

Harry didn’t know what to answer and Neville didn’t push the subject, he never did, so they went into the greenhouse in silence, just to see that all the lilies had bloomed overnight.

He remembered standing by the flowers and touching the petals and questioning the world if that was some kind of signal.

He never got a response, but he had quit the Aurors by the evening.

-

“What’s this?” Laura asked when Neville entered the shop that Wednesday afternoon, holding a glowing cardboard box. Harry peaked when he put it on the counter and found that there was a plant inside, what a surprise.

“It’s a maidenhair fern, a glowing one!” Harry heard Laura say _“duh”_ behind his back, but Neville didn’t hear, or didn’t seem to mind, because he continued with excitement, “It’s very rare, Hannah ordered it from Japan.”

“Does it do anything?”

“People say it’s a good vermifuge, but honestly I have no idea.”

Harry nodded to himself and without taking his eyes from the little leaves said, “You just wanted it because it’s cute.”

And Neville sighed and answered, “I just wanted it because it’s cute.”

“Who’s cute?”

Harry looked up so fast his neck cracked loudly.

Draco Malfoy stood close to the door, taking off his coat, scarf, gloves and, with a sigh, his sweater. He’d been a regular for years now, he knew the deal at that point: the greenhouse was always hot, no matter the weather outside.

He walked in their direction in his crumpled button-down and pristine slicked back hairstyle, holding his clothes against his chest, and Harry could literally, physically, feel the impulse to say “ _you’re cute”_ stuck in his throat.

Ah. Yes. 

That.

“Welcome back.” He said instead, because he was a reasonable, functional adult in his late twenties, with duties and responsibilities, and absolutely no time to cultivate a crush on Draco Malfoy, of all people.

He averted his eyes when Draco said “hi” with a side smile, and busied himself doing a cup of tea while Laura wrote down his order for the next week.

Draco was an event planner, he had a wedding company with his ex-wife, and Harry always thought it was very funny that people would trust him to plan the best day of their lives. Not for his past, or anything like that, it was just that Draco was the most cynical person Harry had ever met. He was always making fun of his clients' decisions and ranting about traditional ceremonies to anyone who could hear him. Once he convinced a bride out of a wedding the day before the ceremony and Astoria had hit him in the head with the girl’s bouquet. 

“It’s so boring.” He was saying to Laura, that exact moment. They had their backs to the counter, examining the lilies, and Harry allowed his gaze to fall back on him.

It used to be his guilty pleasure, this permission to admire Draco’s beauty, the indulgence to allow himself to notice his eyes, his lips, the way he moved, how his shirt hugged his shoulders. It used to be purely aesthetically, just like Harry looked at any other beautiful person, but years went by, and their awkward silences slowly became playful bickering, and every time Draco came to the shop he was more himself than he had been in his teen years. Harry noticed every single change - and that was saying something, for he was not the most perceptive person in any room -, and ignored the warmth in his chest everytime Draco stepped through their door.

He also ignored that one of the reasons Wednesday was his favourite day was because it was Draco’s day.

“It’s a classic.” Laura had a touch of indignation in her voice, but she also knew how Draco worked, and that that reason wouldn’t satisfy him.

“Never took you as a simplistic person, Ms Madley. Don’t ever let me plan your wedding.”

“Oh, please. The day I marry will be the day you will walk in wearing a dress.”

Harry snorted into his tea as Draco said, “I might surprise you.” 

Then he looked over his shoulder and caught Harry staring.

“Working hard?”

“Sod off, I’m on my break.”

Draco shook his head and blessed him with a little smile. There was a white lily behind his ear, did Laura put it there or did he do it himself? Harry held his cup with both hands so he could refrain from stepping close and touching it.

“I see no problems with lilies.”

That made Draco roll his eyes.

“I understand your attachment to it, I don’t understand these women's obsession with an overused flower.”

“It’s beautiful, and it means commitment.”

“Yeah.” He took the flower from his hair, walked towards Harry and tucked it in the pocket in front of his apron. “It also means purity, and everybody knows how many people marry a virgin these days.”

He was so close. 

Harry looked down; pale fingers still in contact with the white petals, and when he looked back up Draco was still there, a touch away, with that damn side smile on his face.

He took a deep breath, and it didn’t help because he could smell Draco’s cologne. Then a question came to his mind: what did _Harry_ smell like? Did he smell like dirt? Like crushed leaves? Like someone who spent the whole day working in a hot place without a single care about his own appearance?

He took a step back, which was stupid because he was leaning against the counter and there was no space behind him. His heel collided with the wood, and he whirled around, putting his hand on the maidenhair fern box for support. 

Everything happened fast.

Hours later, looking back, Harry would remember Neville chanting _“no, no, no, no”_ from the other side of the shop. Would remember the box falling to the floor, along with his cup and whatever Draco was holding in his other hand. Would remember the sounds of something breaking and Laura gasping and leaping back.

But in that moment he could only focus on the way Draco was glowing gold, and in that crushing feeling in his chest that said that if he let him go, he would literally die.

“Well,” Laura said, a few heartbeats later. “ _This_ is unexpected.”

And Harry was dizzy, and in pain, and holding Draco’s biceps like his life depended on it, but he found the strength to laugh before blacking out.

♦

Getting naked in a bathtub with Draco Malfoy was not exactly the first thing that came to mind the few times Harry indulged himself and daydreamed about acting on his crush.

And yet, there he was. Without making a single effort.

He splashed his hand into the water, watching the waves reach the border and come back to him. An elbow nudged the back of his arm very pointedly.

“Stop moving.”

Harry sighed and looked up at Neville, because _yeah_. Getting naked in a bathtub with Draco Malfoy with Neville _watching_ was pretty much a representation of his usual type of luck.

Neville was sitting on the ottoman he brought from Draco’s living room, back to the sink and feet up the toilet lid. There was an old journal on his lap, where he was taking notes, but Harry was pretty sure he was doodling, since they had been in that bathroom for more than a hour, not really talking, and with no big changes in their situation.

“How much time left?” He asked, and Neville looked at him with a sympathetic smile, glancing at his watch.

“Fifty more minutes.”

Harry couldn’t actually see, since they were back to back, but he was pretty sure Draco dropped his forehead to his knees.

“Sorry.” Neville said for maybe the hundredth time, and Harry sighed again because, really, it wasn’t his fault. It was just a very unfortunate sequence of wrong people, wrong place, wrong time, and a bit of Harry disaster.

Draco mumbled something into his knees and Harry tried to turn his face to look at him.

“What?”

“Jasmine tea!” He yelled, sitting back up in one harsh movement and making more water spill from the bathtub. Their backs were again fully plastered against one another, and Harry felt the shiver run down his body, despite the warm water. “What were you even doing drinking jasmine tea? Why not earl grey like a normal person?”

“I like jasmine tea!” Harry elbowed him, outraged. “What about you? What were you doing holding a honeysuckle sapling? I’m not taking the blame alone.”

“You’re the one who dropped the box!”

“You’re the one who dropped everything else!”

“Right, next time I see you going face first on the floor I’ll just _let you!_ ”

“Guys.” Neville asked tiredly, and they went back to silence.

A bond, the Healer had said. An ancient kind of bond, said the Curse Breaker. 

Apparently they mixed together all the meaningful flowers some old civilization used to use in bond spells and rituals, thousands of years ago. Commitment, love, affection, happiness, fertility, family. It was all there, powered by the japanese glowing maidenhair fern that could do a lot more than just being a good vermifuge.

Harry had laughed hysterically when Draco asked “are we _married?_ ” in a squeaky voice, but had stopped shortly when the Healer looked away nervously and said “maybe?”.

They would have been married if they were still in Medieval time, it turned out. But they were not, and the laws and customs had changed, so they were just inconveniently bonded. Their magical cords were entangled, and to break an ancient marriage, they needed an ancient divorce. Hence the bath with another bunch of flowers.

Unfaithfulness, hatred, resentment, anger, ingratitude. There was a flower in there that represented _childish behaviour_. Harry never knew it existed, and he worked at a flower shop.

He didn’t know if his annoyance was an effect from the water or just the situation itself.

“Daddy?” Came the voice from the corridor and the three men turned their heads in time to see the toddler stumble through the door and stop in his tracks under the attention of unknown people. Harry had met Scorpius a few times before, but never for more than five minutes at a time, he had no hopes that the kid would remember him.

“Hey, baby.” Draco called him, very soft, and Harry held the edges of the bathtub with more strength than necessary. “It’s okay, they’re daddy’s friends. Can he come here?” He asked Neville, who answered with a small head shake. “Where’s Take? Can you bring him here?”

Scorpius nodded and was out of the bathroom at lightning bolt speed. Less than a minute later a man was standing by the door with the boy in his arms. Scorpius was hugging his neck and looking timidly from Harry to Neville from behind his little shoulder.

“Hm,” The man hummed, looking at them. Harry knew him, but couldn’t pinpoint from where. He was tall, had long, silky black hair, a sharp jawline, and was wearing an amused expression on his good-looking face. “Do I want to ask?”

Draco snorted, “Believe me when I say that you _don’t_. Can I bother you for one more day?”

“It’s not a bother.” 

“I know you’re busy.”

Tall Man adjusted Scorpius in his arms and looked from Neville, to Harry, to Draco.

“I’m pretty sure you’re busier than I am at the moment.” He said, with a smirk. Harry could feel Dracos’s body getting tense, but before he could say anything the man sighed and entered the bathroom. Neville got up so he could get closer to Draco and Harry hugged his knees, because that meant he would be closer to _Harry_ too and they were _naked_. 

For his credit he did look embarrassed, and didn’t keep his eyes on Harry for more than a second.

“Draco, you’re part of my family now. Both of you. I know my priorities. If you need me to watch Scorpius one more day, I’m up to it.”

There was a moment of silence, enough time for Neville to sneak out of the bathroom and for Harry to think _oh_.

_Oh._

Great.

“Thank you.” Draco finally said, and Harry’s glad he couldn’t see the look in his face, because his voice was as soft as when he was talking to Scorpius. “Thank you, Take. I’ll give you a call as soon as I can.”

“Please do. Do I need to worry about anything?”

“Hopefully not. I honestly have no idea yet.” Then Draco’s voice got a pitch higher and Harry could feel the water move, which he assumed was Draco trying to get his child's attention. “Wanna have another sleepover at Take’s?”

But Scorpius shook his head and extended his arms in his father's direction.

Natural magic was something raw and unpredictable, quite volatile, always eager to find more magic to cling to. They couldn’t predict what would happen if a third magical cord touched the water, which meant Draco couldn’t touch his kid.

Harry glanced over his shoulder in time to see Draco trying to hide his broken expression. 

Take seemed to understand that, because he playfully rearranged Scorpius in his arms in a way he could blow a raspberry against his belly. Scorpius let a surprised laugh escape, and Take took his chance.

“Are you sure you don’t want another sleepover? We can build another fort! Or a farm! Do you think we can build a place big enough for an elephant?”

Then Scorpius animatedly said a lot of things that Harry was pretty sure was a whole full sentence in three years old’s language, but in which he only got the words “jungle” and “rabbit”. Draco laughed and Take said “of course!”, like they understood every single word. Maybe they did, Harry used to be very good at understanding Teddy at that age.

They humoured Scorpius for a while, planning their evening until he’s a ball of pure energy, ready to start building a place for all his animals.

“Say bye to daddy’s friend.” Take said to him, pointing in Harry’s direction. Harry waved, and a beaming Scorpius waved back with enthusiasm. So fucking cute. Take was also smiling at him, which made Harry a bit nervous, like he could see right through him. “Bye, Potter, sorry about, well, all this.”

“Thanks.” said Harry, because what more could he actually say?

“Bye, daddy!” Scorpius was saying repeatedly when they were leaving, almost hanging from Take’s neck.

“Behave yourself!” Draco said to him, and when they were already in the corridor, he continued, “You too, Scorpius!”

They heard Take’s loud laugh and his already far “I love you too, you rascal”.

“Who’s he?” Harry asked, way too fast, as soon as they couldn’t hear them anymore. He was pretty sure his voice was even and calm, but he hated the connotation that question had.

Hated it, hated it, hated it. 

He didn’t have anything with Draco, they were barely friends, he had absolutely no right to feel jealous or to intrude in his life. This was not who he wanted to be.

“Take?” Draco asked.

“No,” Harry replied, still annoyed with himself. “The little kid who looks like you and called you daddy.”

Draco moved, sitting sideways in the bathtub, searching eye contact. Harry stalled, sure that he was pissed, that he was going to snap back at him, ask why he wanted to know, tell him it was not his business. 

So he was surprised when he looked over his shoulder and Draco was looking back at him with a confused frown.

“Takashi Noda?” When Harry shook his head, Draco looked exasperated, “He went to school with us? Ravenclaw? Two years above?” Harry shook his head again and Draco rolled his eyes. “Why am I surprised? You were never out of your little golden team.”

“In my defence, my subconscious knows him, I just can’t say I fully remember who he is.”

“Tell me the names of ten school mates, not from Gryffindor, not from our year, and not from your circle of friends.”

“Zacharias Smith, Roger Davies, Lisa Turpin, Marcus Flint, Terence Higgs… Er…” Draco was already laughing. “Marietta Edgecombe! Jesus.”

“Not sure if Jesus attended Hogwarts.”

“Shut up, let me think! Melinda, what’s her name, that girl.”

“Yes, _that girl_ , very specific, tell me more.”

Harry pushed him with his shoulder and Draco laughed harder. More water fell from the bathtub.

“Adrian Pucey. Was there someone called Bole in the Slytherin Quidditch team?”

“Yes, Lucian.”

“Lucian! Lucian Bole. Hated him.”

“You didn’t even remember his name two seconds ago!”

“Oh, I hated the whole team.”

That was the type of comment Harry wouldn't dare to make some years ago. Their peace was too fragile, had no roots, consisted only in small talk and a professional relationship. Anything could trigger a war flashback and a sneer, and few things in the world pissed Harry off as much as Malfoy’s sneer.

Draco answered with a snort and a “That’s fair”, and Harry stupidly thought _aw, look at us evolving._

It was nice. It was good. Harry never thought he would like to have Draco Malfoy in his life, but well, he did. And, ok, he had a crush, but he knew how to deal with that. He was already dealing with that the past few years, things didn’t have to change. It didn’t matter if he had a boyfriend, Harry didn’t want him for himself, he just wanted to keep him in his life, with his sassy remarks and snarky comebacks, keep hearing his rants and tales, keep track of his weird sense of humour.

He wanted to keep hearing stories about Scorpius, his doubts about parenting, share the experiences he had with Teddy and have some more in common. He wanted to exchange knowledge, help where he could, maybe see Scorpius more often, know him better, learn his likes and dislikes.

He wanted to keep close to Draco, become more than an acquaintance, have conversations outside his place of work or Andromeda’s new year’s eve, have the liberty to ask him out for a coffee, grab lunch together, maybe go to a pub when they both have free time.

He wanted to have the liberty to talk to him wherever he wanted, not have to wait for Wednesdays.

He wanted- _oh._

He _wanted_.

Fuck.

“Ready to get out?” Neville asked, checking his clock. Harry hadn't even seen him come back.

Draco was up in a second, fetching the closest towel and wrapping it around himself.

“I need dry clothes. And food. And coffee. And a big nap. Come on, you two, let’s sit somewhere comfortable, for Merlin’s sake.”

“Going.” Harry said, but stayed behind.

He needed a minute to see if he could drown in the bathtub.

♦

The rules were simple: since they were still connected, they couldn’t stay far away from each other. But, since they were trying to break the bond, they couldn’t touch.

By Neville’s research, they needed to stay five days without any physical contact, but they were throwing two more days into the count just for safety. 

So, a week. No big deal.

♦

Harry knew he was a touchy person. Mostly with his family and close friends. He liked hugs, kisses, speaking with his hands, touching somebody’s arm while having a conversation.

There was this ongoing joke he was compensating for the lack of love in his childhood. 

Hermione didn’t treat it as a joke at all.

Anyways. He knew. 

What caught him by a complete surprise was that he wasn’t expecting to be a touchy person around Draco. At all.

He realised he was the second time he touched the man in a span of half an hour.

“Merlin.” Draco whined from where he was standing, a hand still on his biceps, right where Harry had given him a pat when they passed each other in the corridor. “Do I have to put measurements on the floor? Wear a crinoline?”

Harry leaned against the wall, trying to increase the distance.

“I have no idea what a crinoline is, but suit yourself.”

Draco, in a very Draco way, rolled his eyes with a deep sigh.

“Seriously, it’s only the first day, can you please refrain from touching me? Everytime it happens we have to start the counting over.”

And start it over they did. Four times that day, until Harry started to police himself and keep his hands in his pockets.

The vindication came by dinner time, when a distracted Draco pulled him by the wrist, put a spoon of stew in front of his face and asked if it needed more salt. Harry said no, then very pointedly looked down at his hand and then back at Draco’s eyes.

“Can you please refrain from touching me?” He asked, just to be a little shit. Draco groaned and let go of him like he’d been burnt.

They made a deal that night to try to stay as far away from each other as they could, even avoid staying in the same room together, have different lunch times if it was necessary.

They both had lives they needed to go back to. They couldn’t travel apart by Floo or Apparition, and they couldn’t side-along because that would require touching, which meant they couldn’t go places they needed to go, because Draco’s house was in Beaconsfield, his office in Stratford and Harry’s flat was closer to Godric’s Hollow than London. 

Not even public transportation was an option, if the horrified look on Draco’s face meant anything.

“I’m a spoiled brat, Harry.” He’d said when Harry pushed the subject. “I never even took the Knight Bus. What makes you think I’ll be comfortable inside a Muggle metal box that I have no idea how it works, with a thousand other people that I have never seen in my life? People travel in that thing while _standing_ , how’s that safe?”

Harry didn’t have a good enough counter argument, so he dropped it.

Which led them to work from home.

“Please, behave.” Laura asked when she stopped by to deliver him the crates with the flowers that needed to be put into arrangements that weekend. Harry would do the bouquets, Laura would manage the shop. “If you stay away too long I’m gonna go crazy. Hired Mrs. Flemment grandson to help with the cleaning, and I don’t like to bad-mouth anybody, but that boy is just plain _dumb,_ I don’t even feel bad saying it.”

“Very Hufflepuff of you, Ms Madley.” Draco was entering the kitchen, making a beeline to the sink and filling a glass with water. He’d been sitting in front of the fireplace for at least two hours, giving orders not very quietly and stressing in advance about every single thing he wouldn’t be able to overlook.

Laura just dismissed him with a wave.

“Meet him first then we’ll talk about how a Slytherin would deal with him.”

“Firing him, probably.”

“Oh, the dream. Please give me Harry back and I’ll take the Slytherin way.”

“You can have him in a week.” Draco replied, and he winked at Harry before going back to the living room.

Winked.

Harry gasped softly and pretended his heart wasn’t beating quicker than normal.

“How’s things going?” Laura questioned with an eyebrow raised.

“What things?”

She gave him a _look_.

“There’s no _things_.”

“Are you sure?”

“Hey, you’re not from my House and not from my year.” Harry said suddenly, trying to change the subject. And increase his list.

It worked, because Laura looked lost for a few seconds.

“Huh, yeah? What does it have to do with anything? Do you even remember me from school?”

Harry didn’t, she was years younger than him.

“Nevermind.”

♦

Their deal went down very quickly as soon as Scorpius was back.

“Keep an eye on him for a second.” Draco asked, already passing the boy to him, so he could walk Takashi Noda to the door. Harry watched their backs until they were on the portico, then shook himself and gave his attention to Scorpius.

“Glasses?” Scorpius asked, poking his little fingers in Harry’s lens.

“Do you like glasses?”

“Yes!” He answered, beaming. “Mommy have glasses, red glasses, I want a blue one.”

“You’re going to look awesome with blue glasses. Round ones, like mine?”

“With stars!” He made a gesture with his hands, wiggling his fingers in front of his face, like his eyes were shining. Harry laughed and put him on the table. He looked around and realized that there were flowers scattered all over the kitchen. It had become Harry’s workplace. “Wow! Beautiful.” He extended his arm and touched the closest ones, which were yellow pansies. Harry didn’t know if Pansy Parkinson was still Draco’s friend, he hadn’t seen her in years, but he took a guess.

“Wanna know it’s name? It’s Pansy.”

“Like auntie Pansy?”

Bingo.

“Exactly. You know how your name comes from the stars? Her name is a flower.”

“And the blue? What’s her name?”

Harry taught him the names of at least ten flowers before Draco was back.

“Look, daddy, it’s grandma!” He was holding a bouquet of narcissus. Draco walked closer and kissed him all over his face.

“Really? So cool! Want to give it to her next time we see her?”

“Will she like it?”

“She’ll love it. Ask Harry if you can keep it.”

Scorpius turned his big blue eyes to Harry, pleading written all over his face. Harry tried not to smile. 

“Can I?” He asked, and Draco pinched his nose playfully.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Can I, _please_?”

Honestly, Scorpius could ask absolutely anything at that moment, he could ask for the fucking moon, and the answer would still be yes.

-

“Did I touch you when I gave him for you to hold?” They were sitting on the rug by the fireplace, surrounded by coloured pencils, children’s books and stuffed animals. Scorpius was fast asleep, his head on his father’s lap and his feet pressing against the side of Harry’s thigh.

Harry was so happy he could barely stop smiling.

“I’m not sure, but I think so.”

Draco cast a Tempus, grabbed an orange pencil and wrote “FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11TH, 10:14PM” on the back of Babbitty Rabbitty.

“One week from now, Potter. No more touching, it’s highly forbidden. Subject to the Dementor’s kiss.” He put it on the coffee table, in a way they could easily see it. Harry got it back and doodled little dementors around the text with a rainbow crayon.

Draco was smiling when he looked at him.

“You’re ridiculous.”

Harry shrugged. “I know.”

Scorpius stirred in his sleep and Draco ran his fingers through his hair.

“Technically I only get the weekends.” He told Harry after Scorpius was still again. “But Astoria always brings him to the office, and she’s the one who travels when we have clients from other countries, like now, and he stays with me. So I’m used to seeing him everyday.”

“It was a hard couple of days.” Harry guessed, understanding. Draco nodded.

“Yeah. I trust Take, he’s great with Scorpius, I know he’s in good hands. But it’s not the same.”

Harry knew. He used to watch Teddy sleep just to see if he was breathing.

“I can’t imagine staying away from him for too long.” Draco continued. “What will I do when he’s eleven? How are _you_ dealing with Edward at Hogwarts?”

“You know Teddy hates when you call him that, right?”

“Oh, I know.” Draco smirked. “It’s his name, though, and I’ll stick with it until he gets used to it, then I’ll find some other name that pisses him off. Maybe Wardo.”

“Very mature, Draco.” Harry reprimanded, but without effect, because he was laughing.

“You’re the father figure, I’m just the cool cousin.”

“Cool cousin. Right.” He shook his head, drinking from the image of a smiling Draco by the fire’s light. “I didn’t deal with it, though. Not in a good way. Teddy.” Draco frowned at him in a mute question. “I, huh. Well. Let’s just say I went a little crazy. Said goodbye to him at the station, pretended everything was fine, then visited all my friends at least twice that week. And cleaned the whole greenhouse. And my house. And Ron and Hermione’s house. The tenth time I showed up at Andy’s she kicked me out and told me to go home and have a cry, for Christ sake.”

“Did you?”

“I did. Several times. Highly recommended.”

Draco laughed and Harry joined him.

“There’s not much you can do, in the end. He’s growing up, it’s scaring as fuck, but it’s only natural. I read every single one of his letters at least fifty times, and pray I’m giving him the right guidance.”

“You’re doing a great job.” Draco said, looking him in the eyes, and Harry was so used to stealing glances that this one felt very intimate. He was more naked now then when they were in the bathtub.

He wanted to touch Draco so badly, press his fingers against his cheeks, mess his hair, trace his features. Hold his hand.

He closed a hand around Scorpius' ankle instead.

“So are you, Draco.” He said sincerely. “So are you.”

♦

“You never told me,” Harry started saying on Sunday while entering the playroom. He paused when Scorpius looked at him with a neon green post-it stuck in his forehead. There was a S on it.

“What did I never tell you?” Draco prompted from the corner, where he was sitting cross legged on a foam mat alphabet. Harry loved seeing him like that, unpreoccupied, with his hair undone, wearing his mismatched pyjamas.

“Sorry.” He frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Letter hunting!” Scorpius was the one who answered. He had just unstuck another post-it from one of his plushies. “Another one, daddy!”

“Which one is this? Does it have an S sound?”

“Yes, it’s a Seal. _Se_ al.”

“You’re so good at this! Let’s find another.”

Harry watched Scorpius run around the room, finding new notes in toys and objects, all of them starting with an S. Draco would repeat the words with him, highlighting the first syllable, and then make Scorpius stick the notes back to some other thing that also started with an S.

“That’s actually very clever. Did you come out with it?”

“No, Astoria got obsessed with baby magazines when she was pregnant. It used to be my bathroom reading.”

“Come here.” Scorpius asked, holding the note that was on his head. Harry went to his knees so he could stay at his height, and the boy tucked the post-it on Harry’s hair.

“Does his name start with a S, Scorp?” Draco asked.

“It’s a wave, see?” He did a little wave motion with his hands, indicating Harry’s locks.

Fondness came crashing hard against Harry's chest. He hugged Scorpius and got up with him still in his arms.

“I love my new wave, thank you so much.” Scorpius was smiling with his tongue between his teeth and his fingers on the sides of Harry’s glasses. He loved glasses. “You know what I also love? Pancakes. Do you want pancakes for breakfast?”

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes!” Then he glanced at his father and added, “Please.”

Draco laughed, and Harry noted his cheeks were red. He deliberately didn’t look at Harry, and a spark of hope started growing in his belly, just to be crushed by his brain showing him a mental picture of Take and telling him he was projecting.

“Come on, then. Let’s eat.” Draco said, walking out of the room.

-

“You know, if you don’t ask what you were going to ask before, I might genuinely not be able to sleep at night.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Good thing I’m a dragon, then.”

Harry looked up from his plate of pancakes and stared Draco dead in the eyes.

“That was-” He tried to hold an involuntary giggle. Draco was already cringing on the other side of the table. “Jesus, Draco, that was so bad.”

“Let’s pretend I didn’t say anything. What was your question?”

Harry could keep teasing him, but was interrupted by the sound of the fireplace. They could hear someone walking in the living room.

“Don’t worry, it’s Take.” Draco said, realizing Harry got a little tense. “Forgot a folder at his place last week that I’m gonna need today.”

And Take it was. He entered the dining room like a hurricane, dropped a quick kiss on top of Draco’s head, then a longer one on top of Scorpius’, and stole a bite from his pancake.

“Hey!” Scorpius laughed, putting his arms around his plate, and Take messed his hair.

“Sharing is caring.” He told him before looking at Harry. “Good morning, Potter. Love the hair piece.”

“It’s a wave.” Harry replied, in defensive mode. There was something in Take that, even though their age difference was only a couple of years, made Harry feel like a child.

“Sure it is.” There was no malice in his voice, no irony. He was just affirming a fact. Harry said it was a wave, then it was a wave, simple like that. “I feel like I’m always in a hurry when we see each other, we need to sit down sometime, have a real conversation.”

“Oh, you so need not.” Draco intervened.

“Shall we schedule a dinner date for all of us?” He continued, ignoring Draco.

“We shall not.”

“Don’t listen to this grouchy man. Next Saturday, what do you think?”

Harry looked from one to another, from Draco’s exasperated expression, to Take’s shit eating grin. There was a story in there, one that Harry was not sure he could read.

He should say no.

“Er… Yeah, sure.”

“Great! Let’s discuss the details along the week.”

Then he kissed Scorpius again, said his goodbyes, and was out the door as quickly as he entered.

Harry was not certain he understood what had just happened. He turned to Draco and found that the man had both hands covering his face.

“Why am I tongue tied whenever this guy is in the room?”

Draco spied from between his fingers.

“He has this effect on people, you get used to it.” He lowered his hands to keep helping Scorpius eat, and Harry could see he was red in the face.

What was that? What in their limited dialogue had triggered that reaction? Was Draco ashamed of their situation? Did he not want them to meet? Maybe keep his privacy?

Harry didn’t want to be a burden.

“Huh. You can, you know. Take.” He said to his plate.

“I’m going to need more words in that sentence for it to mean anything.”

Harry lowered his fork and lifted his head. Pretty sure he was the one flushing now.

“Huh. Doesn’t Take have more room when it’s just you guys? You don’t have to change habits just because I’m here.”

Draco slowly blinked at him in a very confused way.

“What are you talking about?”

“Draco. Come on. He can, like, stay over, I don’t mind.”

“Why would he-” He stopped suddenly, realization hitting him hard. He opened his mouth, frowned in Harry’s direction, looking somewhere between a stroke and a hysterical fit of laughter. “Merlin. Circe’s tits. Good Lord. Do you think I’m _dating him_?”

Harry needed a second to revise all their interactions the past week.

“Er, aren’t you?”

Draco put his hands back over his face, mumbled something that Harry couldn’t hear, then turned to his kid.

“Scorp, who’s Take?” Scorpius looked lost, so Draco asked again, “Harry just wants to know: where does Take live?”

“Home?” He answered glancing at Harry, but he was still a bit confused, like he didn't fully understand the question.

“But which home? This one is daddy’s home, but when you’re with Take where are you?”

“Oh, mommy’s home.”

“That’s right, _mommy’s home_.” Draco turned back to Harry. “Because he’s _mommy’s_ fianceé, isn’t he?”

Oh.

Oh, shit.

He allowed himself a moment to be mortified, to feel his cheeks burning, to revisit that idea of drowning in the bathtub. But the moment he locked eyes with Draco again, the moment he saw how aghast he was, the bubble of laughter just emerged from his chest without asking permission.

“Sorry.” He asked between laughs, trying to breathe. There were tears in the corner of his eyes and Scorpius was staring at him in wonder. Even Draco had lost his hard expression, he looked a moment away from joining him in his fit. The corner of his mouth was twitching.

“I can’t fu-freaking believe it. You’re so blind.”

Harry was. Very blind.

He was also very relieved. 

Draco was single.

Draco was _single_.

He _was_ single, right?

“You just… You guys seem very intimate.”

“We are. We met at Hogwarts, have been friends for years. I didn’t hang out only with my housemates like you did.” He provoked. “I was literally the one who introduced him to Astoria when we split up.”

“Wow, very progressive of you.”

Draco shrugged, “We’ve always been more friends than anything else, me and Tori.” He said, then raised an eyebrow and smirked. “But back to more interesting subjects-”

“My question this morning was: what were you doing with a honeysuckle sapling when we got bonded?” Harry cut, trying to distract Draco from the teasing he knew was coming his way. Draco didn’t get side-tracked as easily as Laura, he arched an eyebrow, clearly saying _this is not over, but I’ll humour you for a second_.

“It was for my mother, she’s been looking for flowers she can use as living fences.”

“You could have asked me.”

“I’m a good researcher.”

“Oh, I thought you were a dragon.”

Draco dropped his fork.

Harry raised Scorpius in his arms and ran.

♦

Friday, december 18th, was the day Astoria Greengrass hugged Harry like they were long time friends, not two people who made small talk a couple of times while doing business.

“I heard you got married.” She said grinning, kissing his cheeks. “Congratulations.”

“Yeah, if you’re a fan of traditions from the last millennium.” Harry answered. “But I heard _you’re_ getting married, so congratulations indeed.”

“Thank you, love. Wait for an invitation next summer.”

“Please tell me you’re getting married on a beach. Please tell me Draco is organizing it.”

Draco groaned from where he was sitting by the kitchen table, playing with the roses Harry was arranging. Astoria laughed out loud.

“I would pay a high amount of Galleons to see that happening.”

“No money in the world can make me do this atrocity to you.”

“Thank you, Draco, I trust your judgement. Still want my good old veil, though.”

“Can’t win every battle.”

Scorpius came running from his room, dragging a big Hippogriff plush by a wing.

“Did you put away your toys?” Astoria asked. He nodded. “Want to go to the bathroom?” He shook his head. “Got everything you want?” He nodded again. “Okay, then. Let’s get going.”

Scorpius ran to Draco and hugged him.

“Bye, baby. I’ll see you Sunday and we will go visit grandma, ok?” Scorpius said something inaudible to him, and Draco nodded. “No, I won’t forget her flowers.”

Then Scorpius ran to Harry and hugged him too.

Harry was already missing him.

“Bye, boys. Keep me updated.” Astoria waved from the fireplace, and then they were gone.

When Harry looked at Draco, he was already looking back at him. He swallowed dry and looked away, more out of habit than anything else.

“I thought you got the weekends.”

Draco didn’t answer right away, and Harry could still feel his eyes on him. He got closer, sitting by his side, respecting the distance between them. It was still three in the afternoon, they had seven hours until their finish line. The Babbitty Rabbitty book was still on the coffee table, right in the middle of the room like a family portrait.

“She was away the whole week, it’s only fair she gets time with him now that she’s back.”

Harry nodded and they fell into silence. There were questions in the air he didn’t know he wanted to ask, and was too afraid to answer.

“Sorry, I destroyed a few roses.” Draco said and Harry looked at his hands. He had plucked away the petals of a small bouquet.

“I know you think they’re _overused flowers_ , but _it is_ my job to make them look pretty, not the contrary.” He teased, but Draco didn’t smile back. He was looking at the petals, pushing them around with the tip of his fingers.

“It was unintentional. When I realized, I had already plucked them all.”

Harry stole a glance, like he always did. Fingers, fidgeting; shoulders, tensed; the corner of his mouth being bit from inside. The two moles on his neck that Harry wanted to lick.

“Draco, are you nervous?”

Gray eyes flitted to his. This time none of them looked away.

“I don’t know. Should I be?”

Harry allowed himself to openly look, let all his desire show, to be true to himself. He turned sideways in his chair and Draco did the same, their knees almost touching.

“I really want to kiss you.” He murmured.

“You can’t-” Draco closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face. “You can’t say shit like that when I can’t fucking touch you.”

Harry leaned forward anyway, and Draco copied him unconsciously, attracted like a magnet. 

“Don’t you dare. We’ve come so far, there’s only a couple of hours left.”

“We’re already on the safety extension.”

“Still. Better safe than sorry.”

Harry looked at his lips. It would be so easy. Just a few more inches and they would be kissing.

“Harry.” Draco warned.

“Ok.” He leaned back. “Ok.”

Draco sighed, passing his hands through his hair. Harry wanted to be the one doing that.

“I have something for you. Well, not exactly for you.” Harry said, mostly to distract himself, and pushed a box with a honeysuckle sapling in Draco’s direction. “Asked Laura to bring it with your order.”

“Oh, thank you. It’s not the same one, is it?”

“Nah, I don’t think so. I don’t know if they could save that one.”

“Sad.”

Harry watched him put his hand on the box and touch the little leaves, when a thought came to his mind.

“Do they know? Astoria and Take? About, er…”

“About my crush on you?” Draco finished for him. It was not like Harry didn’t realize it by that point, he was not _that_ obtuse, but hearing him saying it out loud warmed his heart. “They do. They teased me the whole damn week.”

“That’s why they were being weird.”

“Don’t count on it, they’re always weird.” Draco said with fondness. Then he took a card from the honeysuckle box and passed it to Harry. “What does this mean?”

It was one of their business cards, but Laura had written something on the back with a green marker.

_Stop expecting the unexpected when the expected is right in front of your face._

He laughed loudly, and Draco watched him with confusion.

“What is it?”

But Harry didn’t answer. He put the card in his pocket and made a mental note to do something nice for Laura. Maybe coffee for a week. Lunch at her favourite place. A better Christmas gift.

The girl fucking deserved it.

“You know, Draco,” He said, back to the present. “I think you’ll just have to suck it up and learn how to use public transportation.”

And when Draco opened his mouth to retort, Harry kissed him senseless.

  
  


♦

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm on tumblr as [wolflstar](https://wolflstar.tumblr.com).


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